Skip to content
Tiatra, LLCTiatra, LLC
Tiatra, LLC
Information Technology Solutions for Washington, DC Government Agencies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact
 
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact

Cloud Transformation: Promises and Pitfalls

By Chris DePerro

The Public Cloud can sometimes feel like the old Atari game ‘Pitfall’.  On one hand you are strolling through the jungle on a great adventure trying to acquire money and complete objectives that will enhance your position. To achieve those objectives though, you must jump though fire, avoid pits, scorpions, and even hungry alligators.  The cloud is very similar in that it has great rewards as long as you can avoid many of the dangers that exist.

Cloud transformation is at or near the top of almost every enterprise CIO and CISO to-do list for 2022. The decision to move to a cloud-first posture marks a major shift in a company’s IT strategy: one that brings with it countless benefits, from cost savings and optimization to scalability. At the same time, it raises a host of important questions around, platform choice, security, and overall management, to name a few. An effective transformation  must start with a deep understanding of where the enterprise’s environment is today and critically, where the enterprise wants to be in the future. In short, what capabilities are lacking today that the organization wants the cloud to address?

The best journey

To start this journey properly,  the first step would be to conduct a thorough assessment of the current technical architecture and operating state of the organization. Care needs to be taken to uncover as many assets as possible so that an initial baseline understanding of the environment can be achieved. While seeking to unwind technical debit from the legacy landscape, an eye still needs to be kept on the more current deployments ensuring that they adhere to best practices.   Also, attention must be paid to  unusual needs or capabilities in other geographies, verticals or specialized operations that might exist within the business. 

Today’s enterprise cloud environment is expanding and can become extremely complex. But the sophistication in many of the top cloud platforms has somewhat of a yin-yang relationship.

On the plus side, these cloud environments offer tremendous capabilities, for functionality, cybersecurity, data storage and analytics. Used properly, they can advance security and operational orders of magnitude. But those same wondrous capabilities can add to confusion, inefficiency and even security  gaps if those capabilities are not properly understood and communicated (via training) to all relevant stakeholders. 

Stakeholders often don’t know about all of a cloud’s features or best practices

Many stakeholders  don’t use all of their (paid-for) cloud capabilities because they simply don’t know about them, which can also intensify an existing big problem for IT: inaccurate, incomplete, and out-of-date data maps. Nowhere is this more the case than it is with shadow IT.

Don’t discount the advantage of bringing in a separate set of eyes, ideally external ones. There’s a business concept called the power of ignorance. It simply means that after 58 meetings and reviewing 17 versions of a document, the current team starts to fill in the blanks in a way that a fresh external team wouldn’t. That external team can spot problems because it’s all new to them. Bringing in consultants to help improve asset inventory and data maps can prove quite useful. 

Public cloud platforms such as AWS, Google, Oracle Cloud and Azure are constantly previewing new features and capabilities. What is possible / what is desirable, with the intersection of the cloud, on-prem, remote, mobile IoT/IIoT? Even without those complex intersections, many of the major public cloud platforms offer a  comprehensive portfolio of features, but few people are able to learn all of them. Many customers don’t always know the  breadth of the capabilities they are paying for, precluding the possibility of appropriately leveraging them.  It’s best to not rush to quickly into making changes, be sure you understand the  core features of your existing cloud platform before running toward something new. Or similar.

The yin-yang of clouds

The power of the cloud is a double-edged sword that can both help and harm organizations depending on how it is wielded. On one hand it can be very simple to do initial deployments and experimentation. This allows teams to be more agile and develop solutions at a rapid pace. The dangerous side of the sword is when those experiments can too often turn into production services without all of the proper security, governance, and organizational structure. When this happens security issues, operational gaps or even commercial issues can cause significant operating impact. If the problem is bad enough, organizations can find themselves in a situation of data theft or unwanted exposure making national news. 

While many of the cloud platforms have some level of parity, each also has differences that an organization is wise to be aware of prior to production roll out. If proper cloud governance isn’t established it can make it easier for LOBs to go off into the woods, which can be very bad for the CIO/CISO and the enterprise.

From a business perspective, a loosely managed cloud can become very expensive very quickly. Enterprises should examine infrastructure, the number of API calls, billing, and performance triggers. You can be charged not solely on consumption, but also for specific types of transactions. How will your apps and devices likely function in this new cloud environment?

Those questions bring many licensing and cost implications. With licensing, for example, your group might be paying to license applications that your new cloud environments include as part of the fee. Watch that carefully as it could deliver significant licensing savings in the subsequent year. 

Bottom line

While standing up an initial Cloud Platform is easy, enterprise Cloud transformation can be very complex. For a move of this magnitude, enterprises may need a strategic partner to help guide them along their journey. From planning and migration to management and modernization working with an experienced partner can save costly mistakes.

Every enterprise has unique requirements and are at a different level of maturity on their Cloud journey. Therefore, enterprises should seek a partner that deploys a consultative approach to fully understand their landscape, business challenges and technology goals and one that has expertise in defining, migrating, and managing cloud environments of all sizes. Click here[SO1]  to learn how NTT Cloud Transformation Services can assist you in transforming your business.


 


Read More from This Article: Cloud Transformation: Promises and Pitfalls
Source: News

Category: NewsFebruary 3, 2022
Tags: art

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:6 ways to bridge the customer-engineer gapNextNext post:APM 4.0: How advanced analytics is powering the next industrial revolution

Related posts

Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
May 30, 2025
Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
May 30, 2025
The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
May 30, 2025
Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
May 30, 2025
“AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
May 30, 2025
“ROI는 어디에?” AI 도입을 재고하게 만드는 실패 사례
May 30, 2025
Recent Posts
  • Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
  • Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
  • The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
  • Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
  • “AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
Recent Comments
    Archives
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    Categories
    • News
    Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    Tiatra LLC.

    Tiatra, LLC, based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, proudly serves federal government agencies, organizations that work with the government and other commercial businesses and organizations. Tiatra specializes in a broad range of information technology (IT) development and management services incorporating solid engineering, attention to client needs, and meeting or exceeding any security parameters required. Our small yet innovative company is structured with a full complement of the necessary technical experts, working with hands-on management, to provide a high level of service and competitive pricing for your systems and engineering requirements.

    Find us on:

    FacebookTwitterLinkedin

    Submitclear

    Tiatra, LLC
    Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.